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My DD will be 6 in a few weeks. We completed about 3/4 of Abeka's K5 phonics, and then switched to The Reading Lesson because Abeka was simply too much for us, even though it was working. We just finished TRL yesterday, but I wasn't really impressed with it. My DD can read on a 2nd grade level, but she still needs some work on phonics. She doesn't like to sound out words that she doesn't know, although mostly she can if I insist. If you read a word once or twice to her, she just memorizes it (which I suspect is why she can read at the second grade level). I want to do something that will sort of make her learn the phonics so that she can move past this level. TRL just didn't do that. I felt it was too simple, had grammatical errors in the book, and introduced some things in a random order that didn't work for us while not introducing other things that later appeared in the book. (Did that even make sense?) Mostly, the rules it taught didn't really sink in, because she already knew all the words used, so she didn't HAVE to sound anything out.

I have Abeka phonics for 1st and 2nd grade, but am hesitant to go back to them. Is there anything else that I could use that would help teach her the phonetic skills she needs to move on? She loves to read and I don't want her to get "stuck."

I've looked at ETC and I've recently started looking at AAS. Would either of those fill in the gaps? Any other suggestions?

BTW, she is only in Unit 10 of LHFHG. I plan to start the Emerging Readers with her this coming week, but I'm not sure if that helps with the phonics gaps??? I also considered starting spelling list 1 from beyond with her to see if that helps (if I don't use AAS). Help!

Hi,
My kids already had used a different phonics program when we started HOD-but HOD's recommendation for following up TRL is the Emerging Readers, which you are already planning to start with your little one. I did use them with my youngest and they really helped her become a successful independent reader! I don't know if Little Hearts has it, but the appendix of Beyond has a reading schedule and follow-up questions to do with the Emerging Readers, and the brief questions are an integral part of using the Emerging Readers. If she is ready, spelling list 1 from Beyond along with the daily scheduled activities in the Beyond guide will help with spelling patterns and other skills-for me, it seems many phonics programs go beyond actual phonics, but incorporate writing, spelling, grammar, etc. Since HOD already covers all those other areas so well through the guides in the Charlotte Mason-inspired fashion (and even more language arts skills later through oral and written narrations, copywork, Rod and Staff Grammar, writing programs, and studied dictation), a "heavy-duty" phonics program seems to be overkill. Sometimes more is just more, not better or more complete. The incremental skills taught throughout the entire HOD guides really bear fruit over time. HTH!

We add in ETC with our daily work and just started AAS.
I have used ETC with two of my older children too when they were younger and I like it. I am loving AAS so far we just started though.

Just chiming in...
We used The Reading Lesson followed by The Emerging Reader set. We are mid-way through those books.

I must sit with dd7 as she reads each page and remind her to slow down and sound out the words. She tries to read quickly on her own yielding many errors (the sentences make sense and are the jist of what is written but she might say the wrong pronoun or a instead of the). I'm not sure but I think it's fairly common at this age for kids to have many words that they've seen so often that they know them by sight. I'm guessing that the important part is that when they do not know the word, they can sound it out. I also taught my oldest dd to read in a similar way but in hind-site she was a natural reader and this process was very different so I feel like this is my first time teaching phonics .

My plan is to continue on a slow and steady course, carefully encouraging her to use her phonics skills as she moves into each new book.

I probably ought to read up on what a typical progression of reading looks like for emerging readers. Anyone care to summarize?

I would suggest starting Emerging Readers because it will definitely draw out that weakness and she will have to learn/practice sounding out words she's not familiar with. We are in week 20 of Emerging Readers, and while I would say my DD's phonics instruction was not completely thorough, she has grown a lot from where she would just either skip or totally make up unknown or long words she came across, she now is much better at sounding them out and figuring them out. Of course I was sitting right by her listening, so I would say "no, go back and do that one again." There are long, multisyllable names/words that can be memorized but at least she'll have the first time or two, and I have been teaching my DD how to look at small parts of longer words in order to be able to sound them out more effectively.

mamanlait - my DD also used to do what you're describing a lot more - she would say something that means the same thing without really reading what's there. I think that is so strange! But she has gotten better, she'll even go back and correct herself sometimes before I have the chance to tell her to go back and read it again. My 5YO who is doing phonics right now often sees a sight word but then says a different sight words she knows - so she'll say "the" instead of "as" or something. She is nothing like my oldest who reads phonetically and has from the beginning, my oldest would sound the same word out over and over instead of remembering what it looked like.